we start with carl cameron in greenville, north carolina with congressman paul ryan. hey, carl. >> reporter: a couple of hundred miles away on the outskirts of the big party in charlotte paul ryan is basically trying to crash it from a distance today. he is campaigning in north carolina opposites the dnc convention where you guys are. mitt romney will take a few days after. he'll resume his campaigning behind closed doors where he'll do debate prep tuesday, wednesday and thursday. he's leaving the convention to democrats and paul ryan this week. the question, are you better o now than you were four years ago is what the republicans are going to do as a bracketing exercise along the state over the democratic convention hearing. over and over and over again the question was asked, and the obama campaign's top aides were accused of not answering the question yes or no. >> david, can you honestly say that the average american is better off today than they were four years ago? >> here is what i can say, chris. i can say that we are in a better position than we were four ye